US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s proposals are catching a lot of flak from NY Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman

            Although he works in Princeton, nearly 200 miles from Washington, Krugman routinely beats the pants off the Washington press corps by reading legislation and budgets, paying attention when the Bush administration gives five different rationales for tax cuts over several months, and checks budget projections. His column is available online and he is the best political-economy writer in the States. His recent books are expert dissections of the Bush administration’s lies about economic policy.

He calls Hank Paulson’s plan The Dilbert Strategy.

“Anyone who has worked in a large organization — or, for that matter, reads the comic strip “Dilbert” — is familiar with the “org chart” strategy. To hide their lack of any actual ideas about what to do, managers sometimes make a big show of rearranging the boxes and lines that say who reports to whom.

            “You now understand the principle behind the Bush administration’s new proposal for financial reform, which will be formally announced today: it’s all about creating the appearance of responding to the current crisis, without actually doing anything substantive.”

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